Fund-raiser Saturday for Buddy Pack program

The Buddy Pack program that sends several hundred local students home with a food package each weekend will benefit from a fund-raiser from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, at Ayerco Convenience Center 22, 1208 Mark Twain Ave., in Hannibal.

The Buddy Pack program that sends several hundred local students home with a food package each weekend will benefit from a fund-raiser from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, at Ayerco Convenience Center 22, 1208 Mark Twain Ave., in Hannibal.

The Ayerco meal choices include pizza and soda, or hot dogs, chips and soda, said Stephanie Thomeczek, CEO of Families and Communities Together (FACT), the Buddy Pack sponsor.

"We invite the community to come out and have lunch. We will have a live band playing, and 100 percent of the money raised will go to feeding kids for the Buddy Packs.

"Carol Martin, manager of this Ayerco, came up with the idea about four years ago," Thomeczek said.

Students who receive the food packages each Friday are determined by their school principals, Thomeczek said. They are elementary and middle school students at Hannibal and Palmyra.

The Buddy Packs have been distributed in Hannibal for several years, and in the 2012-2013 school year approximately 350 children received them each week, she said.

"The budget for one child per week is $3.50," she added. However, "with community donations of food, our goal is to cut that cost."

The public is invited to volunteer by helping stuff the food packages once a month or helping deliver them to the schools. To volunteer call the FACT office at (573) 221-2285.

In addition to Saturday's fund-raiser at one of Hannibal's Ayercos, Thomeczek said, "every Ayerco in Missouri is doing a raffle fund-raiser through the end of September."

Prizes are a donated Yamaha Yuma scooter and five $100 gas cards. Tickets are $4 each or three for $10. When tickets are bought, buyers circle the county where they want the money to stay.

"You can buy tickets anytime at Ayerco gas stations until end of September, and the drawings will be first week of October," Thomeczek said. "You need not be present to win."